Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 21: But as we have said, the whole substance of creation, both the substance of spiritual objects and the substance of corporeal objects, is no more and no less than a will to receive.

Studying reality, we see that all the elements tend to attract everything useful and reject everything harmful. This is the desire to receive acting in this manner at all levels beginning from the elementary particles and molecules. Everything leans to the most convenient of all possible states.

In the world around us, we observe various forms of the desire to receive pursuing everything for its own benefit each moment. The rock that was thrown falls, the water flows down, the wind balances pressure, all thereby achieving a state of rest.

Every particle of the universe, every ensemble of particles, everything in the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as people, all of this integral system and each of its parts, desire to come to its most comfortable state.

That is the goal of the desire to receive. Everyone always chooses the greatest good or the less of the two evils. However in nature, on its first three degrees, which stem from the Root, this law is manifested instinctively, and the fourth degree is characterized by its own specific initiatives.

In its first three phases, it also develops instinctively in a different way, without freedom of will, but by feelings. Without choosing, the desire still strives forward, embarks on a quest, encourages science, education, industry, commerce, etc. Today, it enters the fourth phase, which makes our time so special.

So, we see only the desire to receive, in its thickness, in sections along the axes, throughout its history. There is nothing but the desire and its action. However as a rule, we do not ask questions about the desire to receive, do not go into the principles of its actions. We just want to enjoy. Why would a person investigate the causes, mechanisms, and consequences? The main thing is pleasure as it is.

However, when the pleasure disappears, when it is out of reach, when trouble and suffering come, then we are forced to start studying: “Why do we feel bad? What can we do? How can we enjoy?” In hopelessness, the mind begins to act and seeks a solution. It is said, “A lot of wisdom—many sorrows.” On the other hand, we cannot obtain knowledge without these sorrows.[125255]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 21: …for the will in any essence creates needs, and the needs create thoughts and concepts so as to obtain those needs, which the will to receive demands.

And as human desires differ from one another, so do their needs, thoughts, and ideas.

Our mind serves the desire. The Reshimot (reminiscences) that awaken and rise fill us with different desires, and the mind begins to fulfill these desires in order to attain them.

We may believe that we are very clever and that our mind encompasses all of reality, but if we are not interested in something, if it doesn’t concern us, then our mind also passes it by. It is because it is a slave. If we want something on the corporeal level, it acts to satisfy the desire relating to food, sex, or family. If a desire for respect awakens, then it is drawn to this problem and ignores other needs. It is the same when it comes to domination or money, and in general, all different combinations of our demands. A person is motivated by a combination of different desires, and the mind always operates according to the spectrum of different desires.

On the whole, we have no truly free mind. It can never be totally cold and objective, detached from feelings, as we want or think that it is. It is merely a servant of the desire.[125232]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

We are the ones who must lead the entire world to correction since we live in the age of the full redemption from the ego for the entire world for every human being. This is why we discover a global world and the integral mutual connection between all its parts, like in an analog system. Everyone is incorporated in one another, dependent on each other, and so, there cannot be a correction in one part of the world without being in the other parts.

The crisis is comprehensive and covers all areas of our life, snarling all the problems into one. It is impossible to correct anything if we don’t correct everything. We cannot do anything that is beneficial in the world if we don’t examine the whole system. It may not be very clear today, but this is actually the reason that all our plans keep failing. We spend billions on a certain action, and eventually it leads to nothing, although we really had good intentions.

The point is that we wanted to do good in one place, but we didn’t take into account all the other things that are connected to it because we don’t have an integral perspective. We look at some small part and we think that this is it! But, in fact, there are threads on the reverse side of the picture that we want to correct that tie it to endless other things. However, we don’t see them! So we make efforts to correct this picture, but everything disappears as if into a bottomless pit, as if water seeping into sand without causing any positive results.

This happens in all areas: in politics, in education, in the family, in ecology, and even when it comes to man, himself, who breaks down more and more. However, we cannot correct anything. We begin to deal with one problem, leap to the next and to a third one, and then everything falls apart and disintegrates like decayed, rotted tissue. This is the state the world is in now. People really do want to correct it, but they despair of their attempts since they lack the integral perspective that allows them to see how everything is connected.

We must correct ourselves since the moment we see how everything is connected, we will be able to convey the force of correction through us. We don’t need anything but that. First, we regarded the entire world linearly, dealt directly with every problem and succeeded, but now it doesn’t work anymore. We lack the integral perspective, the integral sense! This is what we teach in the integral courses so that everyone will be able to see the real picture.

We will see a different world, the inner connections that are concealed behind the external picture of the world, all the intricate tangled webs, our mutual interdependence on one another, and then we will begin to attain the wisdom, the knowledge, and the thought of creation that is in every part of reality. This is called the illumination of the Shechina, the revelation of the Shechina, when we see how everything that breathes is mutually connected and depends on each other. The whole world undulates like waves of the sea carrying great masses of information, intentions, thoughts, and the idea of how everything is interconnected.

We must actually convey all this to people and it all goes through us. Thus, they will improve their lives in this world during the seventy years that they are given. They will connect to the spiritual world and will attain the Light through their connection with us, each according to his level of development. All the differences will exist only until the end of correction, and then they all will connect into one general circle and become one whole.[125221]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14,, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

Question: What should we wait for and expect from The Book ofZohar during the lesson?

Answer: I am not familiar with a book that is more picturesque, beautiful, and romantic than The Book ofZohar. It grasps all the qualities and senses of a person and plays upon their strings.

There are various types of literature: poems, novels, historical and scientific books. But their writers are unable to express something more than our very limited material level. And our words are not prepared to convey anything else.

But when you are reading The Zohar you arrange your interior according to what The Book says, The Book opens a door into yourself for you. And there, deep within, it gives you life, paints a picture, gives an example of what is written in its words and letters.

Nothing in reality is equivalent to The Book ofZohar; nothing rises to that height of artistry with which it was written. The book, Shamati touches something inside you, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, the Gemara, also produce certain actions inside you. And you can read the Shulchan Aruch (The Code of Laws) and feel inner movements according to the mutual cooperation between the Light and vessels. But all of this is “prose” compared to TheZohar, compared to its “lyrics” mixed with unmatched feeling.

And Baal HaSulam, with his commentary, entered into the flow of The Zohar, connected to the souls who wrote it. When I read the SulamCommentary, I felt more and more clearly that this is the result of the work of all ten authors who wrote TheZohar, and in our day this is expressed only through Baal HaSulam. It’s as if they are singing in a choir, in a chapel, completing and continuing each other, and each one continues the music and inserts his notes precisely where required.

This is what a real book is: spiritual revelation within a person. The Book prepares a person, directs, arranges, and fills him. It does everything, and the person only feels the result of what The Book does in him.

The Book activates the person and passes him through a series of states. You don’t need anything besides that. It’s developed in you, changes you, and leads you forward. All parts of the spectacle that you feel within yourself are called The Book. These are not some pages that are printed in a print shop.[124826]From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/14, The Zohar

In the News (from The Voice of Russia): “The scandal that erupted in Britain around Muslim cashiers who refuse to serve the native British who buy pork and alcohol is just another harbinger of irreversible demographic and cultural shifts, approaching Europe.

“In general, European society has already reached the realization that the situation formed by the policy of multiculturalism transcends common sense. On the other hand, the process is already running. The irreversible demographic changes are taking place.

“If in general, the proportion of Muslims in Europe is not large yet, then in the next twenty years, the demographic situation will begin to change.

“Meanwhile, the real facts show that the radical Islamists of the number of Muslim immigrants are already attacking Western values and the very way of life of native Europeans: they cannot drink beer, mini-skirts or shorts are forbidden. Muslim radicals carry out raids in the tourist area of London Brick Lane and threaten owners of local bars and shops with punishment for selling alcohol. Muslim extremists in Belgium promise to eventually throw Belgians out of the kingdom of Belgium.

“All these incidents that we are witnessing now are only harbingers of ideological, demographic and cultural shifts, caused by the policy of multiculturalism. Over time, immigrants in Europe will undoubtedly assimilate Europeans.”

My Comment: Similar processes accelerate the recognition of egoism as evil and are positive. Thanks to them, humanity will quickly realize the limit of its egoistic civilized development and the need to find another way. And it can only be in rising above our nature through the method of integral re-education.[125443]

Question: Can I adhere to the center of the group if I cannot do any professional work in the construction of the new building but simply make sandwiches for the friends?

Answer: Sure, why not? You prepare sandwiches in order to delight the friends.

We use to celebrate Passover at Rabash’s according to the customs and the rules of Baal HaSulam, which were very tough and hard to fulfill. Rabash used to drink about 10 cups of coffee a day. This was customary with the people of Jerusalem. In order to have coffee that can be used at Passover we had to check every bean and make sure there were no worms in it; we had to check 15 kilos of coffee beans that way.

As you know I am very impatient and it was torture for me to sit and examine coffee beans for hours. I smoked more cigarettes than the coffee beans that I checked. So Rabash said: “Come, I will teach you how to do it.” It was the first year that I studied with him. He sat opposite me at the table on which a huge pile of beans was mounded; he took one bean, looked at it, and said: “I am checking this bean so that my friends will be able to drink a cup of coffee. I want to do it for them,” and then he put the bean aside. Then he took another bean and said: “I am checking this bean so that my teacher will be able to drink a cup of coffee! I am doing that for him!” and thus bean after bean…

If you are making sandwiches then you certainly have an opportunity to say these words many times. The fact of whether you possess certain skills or not is not up to you. It it said: “It isn’t the wise who learns.” So it doesn’t matter if you are not very wise. Each of us was given the means that he needs and so you shouldn’t feel sorry about your abilities. Every property a person has must be correct and that’s the way it should be. Otherwise, a person’s physical abilities and the environment would not be compatible with the root of his soul.[124915]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

The time has arrived for us to finally understand and simply chisel it into us: To the degree that there is evil, so there is good, and to the degree that there is good, so there is evil. We must respect and value both of them, accept them with gratitude and kiss the rod that strikes us and those who hate us. We only need to know how to balance our states and always yearn for a direction of greater balance, for connection with the Creator.

Someone who doesn’t understand this principle is in one line. These are the ones who live in our world where everyone is attracted to the good and flees and hides from the bad. And in the life of the Kabbalists is to accept evil as good, as a compulsory component, and relate to both of them as coming from the Creator. And we only need to balance them so that both the good and the evil will be completely equivalent for us.

A person is obliged to be thankful and to bless the evil like the good because he understands that they both only come to raise him to a higher spiritual level. And there is no other reason for the existence of evil, but only to make it possible for the creature to exist. For if there were only good, we could not discern it, for good is the Creator. In order to feel Him, I must first be composed of an opposite nature, of the force that is opposite to Him, that is, evil.

And then, between my evil and His good, I assemble a point that is called the point of adhesion. And that is how we reach the balanced state. And balance is achieved precisely in the connection between us.[124810]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

Question: Unfortunately a person involved with Integral Education doesn’t acquire a global vision immediately. On one hand, he has a group that cannot change him right away; on the other hand, there is the external world which dictates its rules. What should he do in a in this situation?

Answer: Our world doesn’t dictate any rules that contradict the integral method. A person safely engage in Integral Education. In our world there are many exercises that relax a person, train him, expand or narrow his horizons according to what each method is designed for.

We do not present and compare opposites; on the contrary, we say that our world is good and we do not have to wait until it will deteriorate. It is only necessary to include one more force in it and then it will become even more wonderful; we can manage it.

We have always advanced under the influence of one attraction that was egoistic. Egoism lashed us from behind like a whip and we developed. Now a further force is beginning to be discovered that is altruistic, and therefore we have lost control; we have lost our bearings in this world because according to our internal structure, we are not at all adapted to what is being discovered in the world.

We propose the method of awareness, the method for discovering that system of forces that manages us in order to find our bearings in our world again, to understand where we are going, where that system is, how we can enter it, and to secure our future.[124405]From Kab TV’s “An Integral World” 10/26/13